The invention relates to electric shavers or dry shavers in general, and more particularly to improvements in electric shavers of the type wherein the cutter extends from the motor housing and can be confined in a detachable frame which, in turn, can be separably coupled with a casing for an apertured foil serving to permit penetration of whiskers into the interior of the casing and into the range of the cutter when the shaver is in use.
It is known to provide an electric shaver with a frame which can be separably connected to the front portion of the motor housing by suitable detent means and which, in turn, can be separably coupled with a casing for the foil. The arrangement is such that the frame has two spaced-apart cheeks which carry one or more coupling elements for the casing. The latter is movable toward and away from the frame in the longitudinal direction of the motor housing, i.e., toward or away from the front side of the cutter which can be driven by the motor in the housing to sever whiskers which project into the interior of the casing by passing through the apertures of the foil. Thus, the front end of the frame is open and such front end is closed by the properly inserted casing. The casing has spaced-apart lateral walls which flank the foil and carry coupling elements complementary to those on the cheeks of the frame.
In accordance with a presently known proposal, the coupling elements on each lateral wall of the casing include a pair of spaced apart parallel guide ribs and a resilient prong between the ribs. Each prong has a pallet which can engage a complementary part on the respective cheek of the frame when the casing is inserted into the frame in a direction toward the front side of the cutter. The pallets of prongs on the lateral walls of the casing automatically snap behind or into the complementary parts when the insertion of the casing into the frame is completed. The external surfaces of the cheeks on the frame are provided with mobile releasing members which can be depressed in order to disengage the pallets from the complementary parts so as to allow for separation of the casing from the frame, e.g., for the purpose of facilitating cleaning of the foil. A drawback of the just described shaver is that the releasing members are likely to be accidentally depressed, even when the shaver is in use, which can entail unintentional separation of the casing with attendant damage and/or contamination of the foil and spilling of severed whiskers.
The means for separably connecting the frame to the motor housing in the just described shaver also includes depressible and/or otherwise movable disengaging members which are closely adjacent the releasing members for the prongs of coupling elements on the casing. This is likely to confuse the user of the shaver, i.e., the user is likely to detach the frame from the motor housing in lieu of detaching the casing from the frame or vice versa, especially if the disengaging members for the frame are separated from the respective releasing members by narrow gaps so that those fingers of the user of the shaver which are to actuate the disengaging members are likely to simultaneously engage the respective releasing members.
Another drawback of the just described electric shaver is the relatively high cost of the means for connecting the frame to the housing and of the means for coupling the casing to the frame. As a rule, the cheeks of the frame must be provided with openings as well as with fulcra for the releasing members which normally constitute separately produced pivotable levers. The installation of relatively small levers on the frame is a time-consuming operation.